Judicial scandal: 22 judges suspended; 12 more to go

Is there anything in Ghana that is not for sale? We have pretty much “commodified” everything. We sell and buy everything: from votes (of voters, of party delegates, of legislators) to conscience to prayers to friendships to school admissions (at all levels) to public office to promotion to diplomatic passports to exams (including police exams) to grades to certificates to better mortuary treatment to licenses of all kinds to hospital beds to government contracts to tax waivers to favorable press. Everything; with cash or other favors. Nothing is sacred anymore! Is it any wonder, then, that justice (or as the irreverentAto-Kwamena Dadzieputs it, “injustice”), too, is for sale? It’s been for sale for a long time! Ours is a society and a state in deep moral crisis of a systemic and structural kind. This is just the tip of the iceberg; a microcosm of a state/society-wide malaise. And it’s been so for a good while now. It won’t go away just from moralizing and lamenting about it episodically. Our systems, across-the-board, are not fit for purpose! The crab does not beget a bird…..H Kwasi Prempeh

Twenty-two judges and magistrates who were cited in the latest corruption exposé by ace journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas have been suspended by the Judicial Council.

The decision was taken after the Chief Justice and the Judicial Council examined the video evidence of malfeasance brought against the judges by Anas.

A statement signed by the Judicial Secretary Wednesday said the exposé will help the judiciary’s ongoing fight against corruption within its ranks.

“A Disciplinary Committee of the Judicial Council was constituted to investigate the petition against the 22 judges and magistrates. It is a five-member Committee chaired by a justice of the Supreme Court.

“On September 7, 2015 the circuit judges and magistrates were served with letters stating the allegations against them and asked to submit their responses by September 9, 2015.

“The Judicial Council further decided that upon receipt of the responses, the 22 judges and magistrates have accordingly been suspended with effect from Thursday September 10, 2015,” the statement said.

A total of 34 judges may face impeachment as the video expected to be aired on September 22, entangles them in the damning corruption scandal.

One of the high profile judges, Justice John Ajet-Nassam, a High Court Judge, who freed Alfred Agbesi Woyome in the controversial Gh¢51 million judgment debt scandal was videotaped and audio recorded in separate conversations with suspects or persons acting as agents of suspects before him to compromise big cases.

The over two years painstaking investigations by ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas will be released in full in the coming weeks, ahead of a premiere at the Accra International Conference Centre.